Posts tagged Capilano

Last week, I traveled to Vancouver with several colleagues (look for their Blog post soon about it) to take part in a series of events Molson organized for all our stakeholders to mark the 50th anniversary of Molson brewing presence in Vancouver. It is in 1958 that Molson acquired the Capilano Brewery from Sick’s Brewery. With this acquisition Molson, the oldest brewery in North America founded in 1786, established itself in Canada’s westernmost province truly becoming Canada’s brewery from coast-to-coast.

Kevin Boyce, Molson president and CEO and Geoff Molson, (a 7th generation direct descendant of founder John Molson) were also in Vancouver to celebrate this milestone.

Kevin and Geoff
The Molson brewery is situated near Burrard Bridge in downtown Vancouver. It opened in 1953 as Sick’s Capilano Brewery, and Molson acquired it in 1958 in a transaction to purchase all of Western Canada’s breweries operated by Sick’s.

Molson recently completed a $32-million upgrade of the brewery, installing seven new fermentation tanks, a bottle washer and a bottling line. The expansion increased the production capacity by more than 40 per cent to 2.1 million hectoliters a year.
For this anniversary week Molson hosted events at the brewery to celebrate its presence in the city. The events where an occasion to meet & greet with Kevin Boyce, Geoff Molson, Gord Rickard’s and Vancouver brewmaster Kerry Scarsbrook as well as several other local members of the Vancouver brewery and sales team. Brewery tours were arranged for guests, members of the media and bloggers of the Vancouver scene. Culinary hors-d’oeuvres, and a special beer crafted especially for the occasion were served delighting everyone. The splendid weather, food and beers were enjoyed and will be remembered by all.